Judging and yet More Judging!!

Things have been a little busy lately, so this is the first Blog entry in quite a while. Things have continued to grow in the 1940s garden, and on the whole, things are looking much more healthy as a result of the recent rain. 

The children at school have harvested potatoes, which have been used by the kitchen in the children's lunchtime meals. The kitchen have also continued to take advantage of the salad beds in the garden to supply their salad bar with fresh salad leaves and radishes. 

Many other crops are ready to be picked / harvested, including carrots, turnips, beetroot, broad beans and garlic. Other crops are continuing to grow well, and will be producing edible food shortly, or later on in the summer ready for the start of the Autumn term.

Last week, on Tuesday 5th July, the regional judges for the Plymouth in Bloom competition came to judge the garden for this year's competition. Unfortunately, due to the school receiving its OFSTED inspection on the Monday and Tuesday, neither myself or any representatives from the school's gardening team were available to meet with the judges. This was very unfortunate, and as a result of the call coming as a complete surprise, the garden wasn't looking its best. Many of the artifacts usually on display in the garden were inside the main building, including our ARP Wardens, and the scarecrow that the children will also be judged on was still partially finished inside the school and not on display. Luckily, we have since received word that the judges will return on Thursday this week (14th July) to complete their tour around the garden where I and some representatives from the school's gardening team will be on hand to answer any questions and point out any features missed the first time round. 

 

In addition to this, we have also received conformation that a separate judging team from the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) will visit the school on Monday 18th July to view the garden as part of their regional gardening competition. Again, this came as a bit of a surprise, as we didn't enter this particular competition; however one of the key members from within the Plymouth Park Services team entered our garden on our behalf. We look forward to receiving these special visitors on Monday!

Finally, in case you hadn't already seen them, the following two articles appeared recently in The Herald newspaper and online on the Plymouth Post website; both articles feature our school's 'Dig for Victory' garden. The first, featured in the Herald, contained photographs taken during our 'VE Day' celebrations, and celebrated the children's week-long WWII themed week and the official opening of our Anderson shelter.

The second features our garden in celebration of the launch of this year's 'Plymouth in Bloom' competition; this article can be found by clicking the following link:

http://www.plymouthpost.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3791:judges-to-pound-the-city-streets-for-plymouth-in-bloom&catid=34:news&Itemid=64

I hope that brings you all up to speed with what's been going on in the garden recently, and I'll keep you posted as to how the two rounds of judging go on Thursday afternoon and next Monday morning.

Thanks to everyone who's been reading the Blog and keeping up to date with what's been going on - we have now had over 2,000 hits, which is fantastic!!